part two of two

After The Harvest Davina told herself that she would stop running away from problems. Through her own experience she decided it only delayed the inevitable.

While she waited for her coffee at her favorite cafe she convinced herself she wasn't breaking her rule. She knew she couldn't hide in plain sight forever, but sooner or later she figured Marcel would take Davina back to some attic to keep her away from Kol. Though she didn't know the circumstances she knew Marcel had a bad experience with the youngest original, and her apparent soulmate, in the past. Knowing that and the look on the his face drew Davina to the conclusion that if it were up to him she would be far away from Kol.

When she grabbed her drink she made a move to go out the door, but when she looked over she saw that a certain original vampire had walked in. Slowing to a stop she let herself look him in the eye, at least acknowledging he was there.

She knew that she was delaying the inevitable, but she had just wanted time to think. She had up and left the Abattoir the day before. She was sure she looked incredibly awkward, and it wasn't the smoothest exit. She excelled at dramatic walks, the ones where she strode in and out with ease to show her power. Quick exits prompted by the fact you were destined to be with someone lovingly called the psychopath by his psychotic family were not as graceful. She had fumbled picking up her supplies, and then she scurried out the door. If she was a vampire she could've zipped out, but as a mere witch with average speeds she scuttled.

Until that moment she realized that she hadn't actually done the spell for Klaus yet. The silence that the information had caused made the prospect of chanting and doing a spell uncomfortable.

She was afraid her tight grip on her coffee cup would squeeze the contents out, but she managed to walk out the door without a spill. As she walked past Kol she held her breath. She didn't know why exactly, it wasn't like it made her disappear. Also, she was pretty sure her anxiety was visible.

The real surprise was that she was able to walk past him without him stopping.

But she shouldn't have found it very surprising when he caught up to her five seconds later on the street. Well, caught up is a bit of an understatement, he appeared before her in a flash.

Instinctively Davina looked around to make sure no one saw him use his vamp speed, and when she saw no shocked expressions she focused her own at Kol.

"You shouldn't do that in the open," she muttered, moving around him to continue down the street. He didn't a beat, falling into step with her.

"You were walking away from me, what was I supposed to do?" he asked with nonchalance.

"You didn't have to follow me," she offered, trying not to look over at him. She kept her eyes straight in front of her. Her destination was undetermined since she hadn't planned on leaving the cafe so soon, but she hoped that it looked like she was walking with a purpose.

"Well how else am I supposed to speak with my-" he paused, wanting to avoid the specific word, "-someone who shares my mark." Davina couldn't help but let out a soft laugh at his hesitation to the words, but she understood it. Who wants to discuss with a complete stranger about how according to a magical birthmark they were meant to be. "Even I'll admit we can't continue on like nothing happened," he added when he saw her expression. She looked incredibly unconvinced. "We might as well skip the awkward part."

"And what exactly are we skipping to?" she asked, brow raised as she took a sip of her coffee. She took a turn right at the end of the street, and Kol kept up, but wasn't quick to respond. "I don't see you as the settling down type." There was a moment of silence, then she quickly added on more, "not that I suggest that we settle down, I'm just saying I don't see you as the type to want to chat up your… someone who shares a mark."

"And what makes you think you know me so well," he asked, eyes wide as if genuinely concerned.

"I've heard stories." Another turn right presented itself, and she took it, having more of an idea where she wanted to go.

"I've heard some stories about you too," he countered, he did try to keep himself in the loop when i came to witches, "but I try not to believe everything I hear."

"I somehow doubt you heard that I've killed hundreds of people." Hundreds was generous, she was sure it was more in the thousands. "I also don't think the word psychopath has been associated with me in those stories," she told him.

"Well, it's a bit unfair to think of someone as only a word," he protested.

"The word entails a lot."

"Don't actions speak louder?" he asked almost teasingly as she slowed to a stop. He recognized the street they were on. It seemed that she had taken them in a small loop, or a square rather.

"I like words," she said simply, although they didn't come out confidently. She wasn't sure she wanted to know his actions after he left the word psychopath up in the air. So she motioned her head to the familiar cafe to their left. She had decided after a little bit of walking they needed to sit down and have a conversation.

"More coffee?"

"We can sit down and talk," she suggested, "they really have great coffee."

Though not much of a coffee person, Kol ended up agreeing with her.

•••

Back when the soulmate mark was first created the issue of dating was not existent. Back then it was more of a match made quickly and then they were married off, the mark just got the match right. The problem with with present day marks is that it defeats the purpose of the dating period. It exists so you can get to know a person, and it either ends or it doesn't. The mark gets rid of the guesswork, at least in theory, and really just makes the dating period a confusing will they won't they.

Not that Davina and Kol were dating. They were just seeing each other in typical date setting regularly. But they weren't dating, they both pushed that idea to friends and family. Their interactions very much conflicted with their statements.

Marcel appreciated the insistence that there was nothing there. Others, namely Rebekah, found it bothersome.

"Why won't you just admit you like her, or that you're together?" Kol's sister inquired. She surveyed the party, looking for the witch in question. Klaus had thrown some grand affair for some reason or another, and it and she had lost track of her in the crowd.

"I don't see you making an effort to speak to the Salvatore," he retorted, making the blonde stiffen.

"That is an entirely different situation," she murmured, taking a long sip of her wine before continuing on. "You and Davina have very few obstacles in the way," she reminded him, and to her surprise his absolute denial of the situation had yet to been one of them.

"You know what they say about falling for mortals," he trailed, and Rebekah sighed, because it was something she had heard before.

"First sign of weakness?" she confirmed, and she rolled his eyes. "I was hoping your non-feeling shell would've melted a bit when I heard the news." Admittingly Rebekah was concerned when she heard that Kol had met the person who shared his soulmate mark. Her alarm grew when she learned it was Davina, somehow who she generally felt for. She saw a lot of herself in the young witch, and didn't know how she felt about her wild brother being the person she was destined to be with.

"I feel, I just don't just don't have much remorse" he explained, and he restrained from saying it was more of a core than a shell.

She took a second before replying. "Davina only gets a portion a small sliver of life compared to you," she said simply, and he hated the reminder, "so don't waste the time you're both going to be together." With that she picked up a new glass from a passing waiter and took off, leaving Kol alone off to the side of the room.

After several minutes he spotted Davina in the midst of the crowd. Her hair was down, something that always seemed to feel like a personal offense to the original. Due to a shorter hair trend in men his mark was very visible. Maybe he wasn't putting his heart on his sleeve, but he was putting a message out there to anyone who realized what it was. It wasn't much as a message without a match though, and his was more often than not covered up.

He may not fully accepted their fated relationship himself, but he didn't like the idea of Davina purposely hiding it.

He set down his drink and maneuvered his way over to where she was standing. At that moment she was talking with two werewolves whom Elijah had insisted they invite to keep all the species on good terms. He was sure that Hayley's input was reason for their appearance as well. Their conversation was simple enough, light discussion about how interspecies politics were good lately. The thing that made the original quicken his step was the look one of wolves was giving Davina, suggesting he wasn't happy his friend had come along for the ride.

Another saying Kol knew was three's a crowd, but he wasn't quite sure was four was.

He flashed the two wolves a quick smile when he came up beside Davina, snaking his arm around her waist. "Hello," he muttered, directed only to the witch. He had a grin on his face but his eyes were serious, and they didn't seem to be wavering from her. It was entirely to intimate of a look, especially considering that he was wrapped his arm around her waist as if they had done it a million times before. It made her self conscious as she saw the quick change in expression from the two men she had been speaking to, as well as people surrounding them.

She gave Kol a quick nod and a smile, but tried to focus her attention on who she'd been trying to talk to.

"We can talk some more later," one of them offered up, eyeing the vampire to her side.

"It was nice to meet you two," she said, watching as they both retracted themselves from the conversation and moved away. She didn't think it was because Kol was a vampire though, there were plenty around. She figured it had more to do with the signal said vampire was trying to send, which didn't escape her notice.

"You can take your arm off me, they're gone," she said with clear annoyance. She glanced down his hold around her waist and let out a small sigh. He wasn't very picky on when he when he wanted to show affection and when not to, but she was sure that a Mikaelson party was not the most appropriate.

"That's just my way or saying hello," he countered.

"You said hello, I don't think you needed more than that."

She knew that wasn't much help though. He didn't need to voice that actions spoke louder than words again, because he liked to prove that theory over the course of their many not dates. If it weren't for the obvious motives behind the waist move she would have appreciated that it didn't feel forced. Considering their apparent situation, the whole destined to be together thing, she would hope things wouldn't be forced.

The reality that they meshed together well was surprising to them both, but somewhat worrying to Davina at first. Prince Charming never had a problem with remembering the names of the people he killed, and didn't have to awkwardly recount a few massacres of his own doing over dinner.

She didn't talk to him for six days after one of his admittances, but she found it was hard to do. Josh said the universe was working double time to keep the two together.

The scary thing was that Davina didn't see the person that Kol seemed to be in the past. She knew he had been near death at one point, and had experienced the full blow of it. So she knew what it felt like, feeling invincible and then suddenly realizing there was nothing you could do to save your own life. It was because of that she reasoned he'd moved away from reckless killer onto more of his sibling's methods. She didn't think the personality had changed all that much, but there was a divide between what she heard and what she saw, and she knew it hadn't been because what she heard was untrue.

"Well I wanted to greet you with flair," he said, and they started to move away from their original spot. "Want a drink?"

"A water sounds great," she replied, and he expected nothing less. Davina wasn't a drinker, and from her stature that was probably good judgement on her part.

Once they got their drinks, water with a slice or lemon for her and based with gin for him, they lingered on the edge of the courtyard where the party were taking place. No one was really dancing, it was more of a cocktail party sort of thing. It just had a certain flair to it that made it seem grander than people discussing their day and supernatural politics. She guessed that was just the Mikaelson way.

"You look ravishing tonight," he complimented and she gave him a smile. "I can understand why that wolf were making eyes at you," he continued, and the teasing tone in his voice took on a more serious note. It was something that Davina didn't appreciate.

"Is this what that was about?" she asked, and she knew she sounded in disbelief but it wasn't that hard to recognize. Kol didn't really play with others, she knew that much. Her question warranted no response, so with a sigh she added, "really?"

He looked at her and though he said nothing she could see the admittance in his expression. She wasn't going to get more than that.

"Well you don't really have the grounds to do that," she reminded him, sipping on her water to avoid having to say more. They weren't dating, they weren't together, and even if they were he would have to learn not to bare his fangs. Metaphorically speaking of course, she hoped he wouldn't be enough of an idiot to actually do that to two werewolves.

"Well they didn't know there was someone else in the picture-" and she raised her brow at the comment "-and I didn't think it was that great of an idea to let them think you were fully available."

"Are you saying you're the someone else in the picture?" Davina asked, not holding her breath even if he was pretty clear in what he had said.

"Well I'm something," he said. It was if he meant to sound confident, but the words fell out of his mouth stumbling. In truth a crowded party probably wasn't the best place to discuss such private matters, but it was the elephant in the room. "I'm more than something, I'm a someone." Davina couldn't help but look at the mark that was visible on his neck.

"I was under the impression that we weren't going to talk about that," she muttered, tearing her eyes away from the that in question. On their very first coffee date, or whatever it should be called, they decided it was best to ignore the soulmate marks and simply get to know each other. Very quickly she became aware that without the marks prompting their excursions that he probably wouldn't have spent time with her. Somehow that didn't cheapen it though.

"Well that a bit of an oversight on our parts wasn't it," he replied, "we can't just go on forever ignoring the facts."

She wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. She wasn't sure what fully accepting the facts meant actually. Due to the cutting back of marks she had never actually met a soulmate pair. She didn't know they dealt with it in a modern world, because she wasn't going to be marrying Kol Mikaelson anytime soon.

"So what would we do then, if we decided to fully embrace the facts," she inquired, setting down her water because she came to realize she was shaky. The brick ledge looked like a decent enough temporary table.

"Not calling it the facts might be a good start," she offered up.

"So what I meant to say was that we need to fully acknowledge that we have matching soulmate marks," he corrected, looking down to Davina. He tried to do his signature grin but he didn't have his normal arrogance so it looked more like an uncertain smile.

"And that we're-"

"Soulmates?" he finished, a very nervous laugh following the word.

"That," she agreed, but she couldn't bring herself to laugh. It was such a loaded word, and understandingly so, but she didn't think she would be dealing with it so soon in her life.

She was going to ask how they could embrace the marks more, but before she could start speaking Kol ducked his head down and kissed Davina. For a moment she forgot she was in a very crowded party with most of the prominent supernaturals in the city, and she kissed him back. When she came to her senses and pulled back.

"Actions speak louder," he whispered.